Blood Will Out

The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade

By: Walter Kirn

Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies

An In Cold Blood for our time, a chilling, compulsive story of a writer unwittingly caught in the wake of a grifter-turned-murderer.

In the summer of 1998, Walter Kirn - then an aspiring novelist struggling with impending fatherhood and a dissolving marriage - set out on a peculiar, fateful errand: to personally deliver a crippled hunting dog from his home in Montana to the New York apartment of one Clark Rockefeller, a secretive young banker and art collector who had adopted the dog over the Internet. Thus began a 15-year relationship that drew Kirn deep into the fun-house world of an outlandish, eccentric son of privilege who ultimately would be unmasked as a brazen serial impostor, child kidnapper, and brutal murderer.

Kirn's one-of-a-kind story of being duped by a real-life Mr. Ripley takes us on a bizarre and haunting journey from the posh private clubrooms of Manhattan to the hard-boiled courtrooms and prisons of Los Angeles. As Kirn uncovers the truth about his friend, a psychopath masquerading as a gentleman, he also confronts hard truths about himself. Why, as a writer of fiction, was he susceptible to the deception of a sinister fantasist whose crimes, Kirn learns, were based on books and movies? What are the hidden psychological links between the artist and the con man? To answer these and other questions, Kirn attends his old friend’s murder trial and uses it as an occasion to reflect on both their tangled personal relationship and the surprising literary sources of Rockefeller's evil. This investigation of the past climaxes in a tense jailhouse reunion with a man whom Kirn realizes he barely knew - a predatory, sophisticated genius whose life, in some respects, parallels his own and who may have intended to take another victim during his years as a fugitive from justice: Kirn himself.

Combining confessional memoir, true crime reporting, and cultural speculation, Blood Will Out is a Dreiser-esque tale of self-invention, upward mobility, and intellectual arrogance. It exposes the layers of longing and corruption, ambition, and self-delusion beneath the Great American con.

©2014 Walter Kirn (P)2014 Audible Inc.

terrific

What made the experience of listening to Blood Will Out the most enjoyable?

the sensibility of the writer in relation to the enigmatic Clark. Fascinating inspection of both men,

What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I'd probably enjoy it just as well reading it - but the actor has an unbelievable command of accents.

Any additional comments?

Brilliant. Part memoir, part mystery.

Walter Kirn not write

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes, number one the writer of this book was boring, and I found that I was not able to pick up whatever he was trying to put down. So if the story was interesting which from what I could gather it was not, another author maybe.

What was most disappointing about Walter Kirn’s story?

The lackluster story, or non story if you will.

What three words best describe Stephen Bel Davies’s performance?

Complex yet boring

Did Blood Will Out inspire you to do anything?

Try another book.

Any additional comments?

Key point, the name Rockefeller always sells.

Bizarre and interesting in an icky sort of way

What did you love best about Blood Will Out?

Didn't really love it, but I was fascinated by the gullibility of the narrator/author, the evilness of the main character, and the overall bizarreness of the events that the book recounts.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting was how thoroughly and devastatingly the villain of the book conned just about everyone.

Which scene was your favorite?

I didn't really like any of the parts involving the poor dog.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Revelation of how an innocent person was taken advantage of and murdered.

Any additional comments?

Just bizarre.

Hear the Fresh Air review first

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It could be shorter, more linear.

What could Walter Kirn have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Walter Kirn's voice is perfect to read his own books.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Stephen Bel Davies?

Yes.

Do you think Blood Will Out needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No.

Any additional comments?

Listen to Walter Kirn on NPR Fresh Air. It will give you the best clues on his subject.

Fascinating Book

What made the experience of listening to Blood Will Out the most enjoyable?

The story of the author's (sometimes self-serving) friendship with a psychopath and killer is truly fascinating. It's well paced and keeps the listener's interest.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The psychopathy of the book's subject, and the self-reflective relationship of the author to the subject.

Have you listened to any of Stephen Bel Davies’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Story about unbelievable con man

This book is about an unbelievable con man from the perspective of a person who was conned from when they met until the end of the murder trial in 2013. The author is very honest about how he was duped and his own culpability into falling for this con man. If the book intrigues you, then go back and download "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit" which is more of a fact based book but was written before the murder trial and focuses on the kidnapping trial. I just was looking at a You Tube interview which included both authors so they compliment each other. If you find the concept of how a psychopath can fool an author writing about him, you may also be interested in "True Story" by Michael Finkel.

You must read the Mark Seal book first

"The Man in the Rockefeller Suit" will give you the factual parts of the story, and is a fascinating read. This book is a personal and intimate recording of how the author was duped. There has been a lot of publicity surrounding the publication, and reviews have generally been good. I really liked it, but it would have made little sense had I not read the Mark Seal book first (which ends before the guilty verdict for murder is pronounced.)

Lacked substance

I really enjoy true crime novels, but this one was more a story about two friends, and the lies one told the other, than it was about the crime. I actually liked Kirn's writing, his descriptions, humor and wit (which is why it gets 3 stars); but somewhere in the book I was hoping the crime story would take center stage. It never really did though, this book majored in the minor details of Kirn's relationship with Clark Rockefeller. Once I realized the book wasn't ever going to hook me, it became hard to finish.

Although this book was a disappointment to me, I liked Kirn's writing style enough that I will look for other books by him. The narrator did an excellent job of reading this story.

fascinating tale

Love when an author reads their own book, especially for this very personal story.

Nonfiction written like a novel

It is interesting to have a book written by a novelist about a person who seems to be fictional. The author sounds like a good father. I hope his Income sources have stabilized. He can spoil his grandchildren.